common word spelling Tues 10 word

[Tom44]

Among the common words in Tuesday's puzzle is "mescalin."  I can assure you that while mescaline is quite common, mescalin is a spelling variant that is much less common.  I taught a course in psychoactive drugs for 30 years and virtually never ran across mescalin, and neither does it show up in many dictionaries.  I think this one should be moved to the rare category.

[mkenuk]

COD gives 'mescalin' as an alternative to 'mescaline'; I've always spelled it with 'e'. We had 'gelatin' and 'gelatine' a few days ago in a puzzle; I think both were accepted as common; I assume it would be the same for 'mescaline'?
MK

[Tom44]

Right.  I am not objecting to mescalin.  What I object to is classifying this spelling variant as common.  I just don't believe it is common.

[Morbius]

I've only ever come across the word in Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, where it's spelt 'mescalin'.  I've never seen it spelt with an 'e' at the end (although I defer to  Tom44's expert knowledge in the area and accept his view that the more common spelling is 'mescaline').  Perhaps to those of us without expert knowledge, 'mescalin' is more common.  It is to me, at least.

[Tom44]

Also known as Peyote from the peyotl cactus.  I guess its just familiar to me from textbooks.  Its a minor point anyway.  Thanks for posting.

[birdy]

Back in the '60s (which extended into the '70s), there was a great deal of talk about mescaline (and I always saw it spelled with the "e").  As I recall, most people used the word for the artificial variety, and peyote for the cactus-derived product. 

[Alan W]

Yes, it does seem that the mescalin spelling is used only by British writers. But even in Britain, it looks to me that the mescaline spelling is more widely used. So I agree with the suggestion of dropping mescalin as a common word.